Tuesday, August 28, 2012

On Vulnerability and Strength

Another great TED lecture.

I played this in the background as I puttered about the cottage, sweeping up dead insects in corners, hauling old books into the basement and repairing our broken wind chime. She makes some great points and her self-deprecating humour makes this a lot of fun to listen to. I especially appreciate her comments near the end on how some raise their children to believe they're perfect, rather than teaching them that they are imperfect but valuable and worthy of love, and also how debates on religion (and politics, for that matter) have become so toxic. What has happened to civilized discourse? How did it become so personal?

Have a listen and tell me what you think.

UPDATE: If you have problems seeing the video, you can go to the site HERE and watch it on YouTube, or if that doesn't work, you can cut and paste the URL

About Me

A Novel Woman, AKA Pamela Patchet, was unwittingly born and raised in Toronto instead of Paris. She worked her way from A&W carhop to political advisor to advertising executive where, on any given day, she was called upon to soothe disgruntled clients, cajole temperamental artists, juggle multi-million dollar budgets or locate trained penguins for television commercials. She married a handsome dentist for love and a lifetime of free dental care, raised three kids, and established a freelance writing career, not unlike her earlier jobs, minus the penguins.